In December 2023, Van den Brink started the realisation of construction phase 3. For this, a zoning change was applied for, and the building block was enlarged. "It has been quite a process, but because of the municipality of Houten it went smoothly. Our rapport with the municipality is very good, so all cooperation was granted," says Ton van den Brink. Van den Brink is a service-oriented family business. The company consists of a refrigeration and storage company, sorting/packing station and fruit growing mainly pears. "We specialise in the long storage of apples and pears, as well as storage, transhipment and packing of (imported) fruit," says Van den Brink.
"The new construction allows us to expand our logistics services. A total of three hoods totalling 3,200 m² have been built. There will be expansion with 14 (ULO) cold stores, refrigerated shipping area, automation of sorting/packaging and conditioned areas for finished products. Through this expansion and growth of our team, we have the capacity to broaden our scope in packing all kinds of fresh produce. We can carry out additional handling such as repackaging, groupage, sorting or quality control for the customer, relieving them of all their worries. Putting together school fruit packages is also part of our business."
"We want to automate to remain interesting for our clients," Peter van den Brink says. "In addition to the current quality grading, we are also making steps in automatic filling, stacking and labelling. The ammonia cooling building is box-in-box and extremely sustainably designed with heat recovery, high insulation values, high fire prevention and the roofs will soon be fully utilised with over 5,000 solar panels."
The preparation and supervision of the new building is supported by DLV project leader Arne van Rossum and storage technology consultant Frank van de Geijn. The construction involves the following partners: Construction and assembly company Hogendoorn, Vrisolatie is installing the cold stores, Van Kempen is providing the refrigeration technology. The CA storage technology will be realised by KTI Van Dam and Van Amerongen, the electrical installation with Energy Management System will be provided by Van Eck Waardenburg.
"The first cold stores will be turned cold next week, making them ready well in time for the new fruit harvest. There is still cold storage space available at the moment for both current and new customers!"
For more information:
Van den Brink B.V.
Tuurdijk 43
3997 MS 't Goy
Tel: +31 030-6012144
[email protected]
www.brinkfruit.nl